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Tenor pulls out of SF Opera’s ‘Romeo’ days before opening night

Joshua KosmanSeptember 3, 2019Updated: September 3, 2019, 4:50 pm

Tenor Bryan Hymel Photo: Marc McCourt

Tenor Bryan Hymel, who was slated to sing the male title role in the San Francisco Opera’s season-opening production of Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet,” has withdrawn from the entire run of the opera, citing “personal reasons.”

The company announced that Pene Pati will take over as Romeo in the production, which opens Friday, Sept. 6, and runs through Oct. 1.

Hymel has appeared only once before at the War Memorial Opera House, giving a bravura performance in 2015 as Aeneas in Berlioz’s “Les Troyens.” At that time, he sang only three of the six performances, falling ill after the first two and returning nearly three weeks later to conclude the run.

Pati, the Samoan-born New Zealand tenor who appeared as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s “Rigoletto” in 2017, was already scheduled to sing the final performance of “Romeo” opposite his wife, soprano Amina Edris. The rest of the run features soprano Nadine Sierra as Juliet. All three artists are former Adler Fellows singing their respective roles for the first time.